A Respectable Woman Summary
Kate Chopin’s “A Respectable Woman” Summary Class 12 English.
About the Author
Characters of the Story
- Mrs. Baroda: The protagonist, a married woman grappling with her desires and societal expectations.
- Gouvernail: A friend of Mrs. Baroda’s husband, whose presence triggers Mrs. Baroda’s inner conflict.
- Gaston Baroda: Mrs. Baroda’s husband, who invites Gouvernail to stay at their plantation.
Setting
Summary
Kate Chopin’s, A Respectable Woman Summary is given as:
Short Summary:
Complete Long Summary
The story ‘A Respectable Woman’ has been written by
Kate Chopin. Kate Chopin was an American novelist and short story writer. The language which she used in her stories and
novels are full of sexual connotations. The short story revolves around
the character of Mrs. Baroda and her inner conflict as she finds herself
attracted to her husband’s friend Gouvernail. The conflict follows the pattern
of classical fiction and moves from exposition to rising action and then to
climax and resolution.
Mrs. Baroda finds Mr. Gouvernail staying with them in
sugar plantation. She is dissatisfied that they have been doing a lot of fun.
She has hoped to take rest but. She is also upset because her husband’s friend
Gouvernail is planning to stay a week or two at their plantation. She has never
met Gouvernail, despite the fact that she is aware that Gouvernail and her
husband were friends in college and that he is now a successful journalist. Before
the meeting Mrs. Badora has a mental image of him as a ‘tall, slim, cynical;
with eye-glasses, and his hands in his pockets.’ But a paradoxical thing happens after then.
When she meets Gouvernail, who is slim but neither tall nor cynical, she
discovers that she really likes him.
Mrs. Baroda
gets wondered that why she loves Gouvernail since he makes no special effort to
impress her in any other way. In the same way, she is unsure why she likes
Gouvernail because she does not see all of his positive characteristics. He
doesn’t appear intelligent, but in reaction to her excitement to welcome him
and her husband’s hospitality, he appears quiet and kind. He loves sitting on
the field and listening to Gaston explaining sugar plantation methods. He does
not seem to be very bright, but he does appear calm and polite.
Mrs. Baroda
finds Gouvernail to be a little confusing, yet she finds him to be charming and
unoffensive. Unlike what she has heard from her husband Gaston, she finds him,
way better than heard. She first leaves him alone with her husband, but as she works
to overcome his nervousness, she begins to accompany him on walks. Her husband
informs her that he will be staying another week and inquires as to why she
does not want him to. Gaston is delighted when she says that she prefers him to
be more demanding.
Mrs. Baroda
claims that she expected Gouvernail to be more interesting. Gaston tells her
that he does not expect disturbance over his visit and that he just wants a
break from his busy life. She sits alone on a bench later that night, puzzled
and desiring to leave the plantation, having told her husband that she might go
to the city in the morning and stay with her aunt.
She goes for the city the next morning and does not
return until Gouvernail has left the city.
Gaston requests that Gouvernail return the next summer,
but she rejects. She subsequently changes her mind, much to her husband’s
surprise, who assures her that Gouvernail has not deserved her disapproval. She
tells her husband, adding that she would now treat him with greater hospitality
by kissing him and vows that she has “overcome everything”. In this way, the story
ends.
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